Crisis in the Flower Beds

Before Joey’s dad left for work, he reminded Joey to be sure and pull all the weeds in the flowerbed along the driveway and right next to Mr. Davis’s house. Dad promised Joey that if he did a good job pulling the weeds, they’d go watch the local baseball team’s game at the big city ball field that evening.

This job was going to take a couple of hours in the hot sun. To help make the time go faster, Joey decided to ask Andy to help him in the flowerbed. After all, ants know what goes on under the ground. Many of the underground ant trails pass right by the weed roots. At least he would have someone to talk to while he pulled the weeds.

Andy liked weeds because they gave his family extra shade on the hot summer days, but he agreed to spend a few hours with Joey to keep him company—and Joey promised to take Andy to the baseball game later that evening if he would help. As Joey worked, Andy found other neighborhood ant friends in the flowerbed and introduced them to Joey. That morning Joey also met Barney Bee, Sam Snail, and William Worm. It seemed everyone was having a great time in the flowerbed that morning.

But then Joey’s older brother, Dwayne, came out of the garage. He had an insect sprayer with him. He told Joey that Mom wanted him to spray the flowerbeds and rose bushes to get rid of those pesky ants and then spread snail bate throughout the flowers to get rid of the snails.

What do you think Joey said to Dwayne?

How do you think Dwayne responded to Joey?

Did the ants and other neighborhood friends have time to get away before the spraying began?